A Regimental Affair

by Mallinson, Allan

  Armstrong relit his pipe. ‘Dying in the dark like that – they’re all afeard of it. What’s it they say? There are no atheists at night with a muzzle jammed their way!’

  ‘Thank God that Hill and Greenwood were single men.’

  ‘But they’d mothers, like as not.’

  It seemed perverse to wish instead that, like Johnson, they were sons of the orphanage. Yet Johnson had told him many times that he could never be a soldier with a mother anguishing for him.

  Caithlin placed a pot of coffee in front of them. ‘Who had mothers?’

  ‘None of our troop!’ replied her husband, with a smirk.

  ‘Jack Armstrong!’ She put her hand to her breast.

  ‘Just a manner of speaking, love.’ He looked, indeed, a shade chastened. ‘Sit down a minute, lass.’

  ‘Only a minute, mind.’

  They drew up a chair for her.

  Hervey lost no time recounting events. By the end, he felt immeasurably better, for the honest company of the Armstrongs was the best of antidotes to Lord Towcester’s spite.

  Henrietta returned some hours earlier than expected. She looked troubled as her husband came into her sitting room, and she did not rise to greet him. ‘Princess Charlotte is unwell,’ she sighed, inclining her cheek to him as he bent to kiss her.

  Hervey was sorry to hear it, of course, but it seemed strange that this should bring such gloom. ‘What is the cause?’

  Henrietta looked at him, surprised. ‘Matthew, she is eight months with child!’

  ‘But how is she troubled?’

  ‘She has had two miscarriages, you know.’

  Hervey did not know.

  ‘And she grew very large in the summer, so that Sir Richard Croft had to restrict her diet severely, and draw off blood each day. And I think this has greatly depressed her spirits, for she spoke very freely of her fears.’

  ‘You saw her?’

  ‘Only briefly. She had asked me to take tea, along with several others, but then Sir Richard insisted on bleeding her again.’

  Henrietta had herself engaged Sir Richard Croft to obstetricate, for he was acknowledged as pre-eminent in that field, as indeed the physician should be who was to deliver the King’s first greatgrandchild.

  ‘The princess is in the best of hands,’ Hervey pointed out.

  ‘But ultimately she is in God’s hands,’ sighed Henrietta. ‘And He may have designs that are unfathomable.’

  Hervey could not gainsay it, but he saw no profit in contemplating the melancholy fact. He moved his chair closer and took her hand. She smiled at him a little thinly, but even her anxiety could not dull the blush that had come in this third month of her own pregnancy. She had not yet any swelling that he observed, except he fancied in her bosom, and her hair shone like a stallion’s coat. He had never imagined that her attraction to him could increase so.

  They kissed long, and in doing so she seemed to forget her disquiet, and he his own troubles. Why might they not forget them a little longer? He rang for Hanks and said they would not dine, and that her ladyship’s maid might be dismissed for the evening.

  The next morning, Henrietta’s spirits seemed largely restored, so Hervey hazarded to tell her of the events of the beach, and Lord Towcester’s reaction. She comprehended everything at once – the extent and implications, the limitations and possibilities – and at once she resolved to act. She had extricated Hervey from arrest in Ireland when his excess of conscience and zeal had provoked a jealous authority, and she saw no reason why she should not do the same now. To Henrietta, indeed, the exercise of influence was but a normal part of life. She had friends and she had artfulness, and the deployment of both for the good of her husband was entirely proper to her. True, she had been expecting to use her connections for his advancement rather than for his rescuing, but it was of no matter: the methods were essentially the same.

  Hervey was brightened by her spirits. They had, indeed, been restored in the intimacy of their embraces the night before, but that she should be so buoyant now after hearing of his miserable condition seemed remarkable. Princess Charlotte was not mentioned once throughout their breakfast.

  ‘Shall you rest today, or do we go for a drive?’ he asked, quite carefree, indeed. ‘I have no duties to detain me.’ A dragoon without his sword – he did not count for anything.

  ‘A drive? Perhaps. Later, though, for I’ve letters to write, and I should not put them off.’

  He poured himself more coffee, and then Hanks brought in the Morning Herald and a letter for Henrietta from Longleat. While she looked over the letter’s contents – local news of a general kind from Lady Bath – he turned the Herald’s pages. One report caught his eye at once:

  We learn of a very serious Breach of the King’s Peace in the County of Sussex two nights last, wherein there took place a desperate clash of arms between His Majesty’s forces and a descente of French smugglers, of whom some sources have it that their numbers were close on a hundred. A running fight with as many of His Majesty’s dragoons has left a score of dead on both sides.

  Hervey sighed. The scribbler’s art could ennoble the meanest affair.

  ‘What is it, my love?’ asked Henrietta, the first two pages of her own news not detaining her long.

  He read it to her.

  ‘It sounds . . . heroic.’

  He smiled ruefully. ‘There were neither a hundred Frenchmen nor a hundred dragoons – though there should have been.’

  ‘Matthew, my love, if someone wants to say there were a hundred Frenchmen opposed to you, then I should not be in any great hurry to disabuse them!’

  He smiled again. ‘No, perhaps not.’

  ‘What does The Times say?’

  ‘We do not appear to have it.’

  ‘Then we shall have to wait to see if they have any advance on a hundred!’

  Henrietta’s self-possession seemed remarkable. She appeared not the least anxious for her own situation in connection with her husband’s. Hervey was about to make some endearment when Hanks entered again and announced that Private Johnson wished urgently to see him. Henrietta nodded, and Hervey bid him show him in.

  Johnson was in best dress (he would explain that it was the surest way of being allowed to pass by the town patrols, who assumed him to be on official business). ‘Good morning, your ladyship, ma’am. Good morning, Cap’n ’Ervey, sir. I thought you’d be wanting t’know that we’ve got all t’orses back, ’Arkaway an’ all!’

  Hervey was astonished. ‘How in heaven’s name—’

  ‘They’d all run east, and down into that valley that ’as that river.’

  ‘The Winterbourne?’

  ‘Ay, sir. That’s why Cap’n Strickland’s troop couldn’t see ’ide nor ’air of ’em from t’turnpike.’

  ‘And who found them?’

  Johnson smiled even broader. ‘They all came into Ovingdean trottin’ behind t’Dover stage yesterday morning – still saddled. T’livery there caught ’em all.’

  This was good news indeed. And it would draw the sting as far as Lord Towcester was concerned – somewhat, at least. ‘Where’s Harkaway now?’

  ‘Back in ’is stall, right as a trivet.’

  ‘But with one more leg?’

  Johnson smiled. ‘I’m glad yer not too out of sorts, then, Cap’n ’Ervey!’

  Henrietta smiled too. ‘I shall go to my sitting room to finish my letter, and you may talk all morning of corralling horses. I shall ask Hanks to bring more coffee.’

  When she had gone, Hervey bid Johnson sit at the table and tell him what other news there was.

  ‘Not a lot, sir. Cap’n Strickland is in arrest, too, though.’

  ‘Not a lot? Just another troop leader arrested?’

  Johnson frowned. ‘I thought you meant news in t’troop.’

  It was always well to remember the difference. A private man thought little beyond his own troop. ‘Any news, man!’

  ‘Crowner’s ’quest on Greenwood an’ ’Ill
today.’

  ‘Is it, indeed? That is very prompt. Where?’

  ‘I think they said it were at t’assembly rooms.’

  ‘At what time?’

  ‘Twelve, I think. Are you going to go, sir?’

  ‘Most certainly! I can’t think why I’ve not been called to give evidence.’

  Johnson looked thoughtful. ‘Are ye sure y’ought to be gooin’?’

  ‘Just pretend you never heard me say it. What other news?’

  ‘There’s been a man from t’Times sniffin’ round since yesterday mornin’, but nobody’s said owt as far as I know. But ’e’s buying drink and offering money. It won’t be long before some gobby devil falls for it.’

  ‘And what might he say, Johnson?’ Hervey had the distinct sense that his groom felt there was something to withhold.

  ‘Anything ’e wants to ’ear. That there were two hundred Frenchies, led by Bonaparte himself!’

  ‘So you don’t mean that some might say we were wandering about the downs like lost Jews?’ Hervey’s concern for the good opinion of the canteen was genuine, as well as for the mischief the opposite opinion could make.

  Johnson shrugged. ‘I’ve been lost in worse places. Isn’t that what ’appens in t’dark?’

  ‘Not if you’re an officer,’ smiled Hervey wryly.

  ‘But at least y’knew where y’was gooin’. I’ve known some officers as didn’t even know that!’

  Johnson was ever frank. It was one of the reasons he was still a private – and one of the reasons he was still Hervey’s groom. ‘And is there anything else?’

  ‘Oh, ay, there is: t’RM asks if you’d like to ’elp ’im wi’ a new ’orse ’e’s just bought. Up on t’downs, away from things.’

  Hervey was touched, for the riding master’s invitation to schooling sounded like a message of support. ‘Please tell Mr Broad that I should like to very much. And do you think you might look out some clothes for the inquest meanwhile?’

  ‘Ay, right you are then, sir.’

  Johnson left through the door that Henrietta opened. She smiled at him, as she always did, and then turned to her husband with a look of some distress. ‘Matthew, have you not received any word from Wiltshire of late?’

  ‘No. Is there something wrong?’

  ‘Lady Bath writes that your father is to be summoned before the consistory court.’

  Hervey’s heart sank again. ‘But all that was finished. He made his peace with the archdeacon months ago.’

  She raised an eyebrow. ‘Evidently it was not a lasting peace.’

  ‘There is no mistake? I’ve heard nothing from Elizabeth, and she for certain would have written.’

  ‘There is no mistake, Matthew. Lady Bath gives dates and places – here, read it.’

  He took the sheet. It read plainly enough. ‘I’ll apply for leave to travel to Horningsham at once.’ Then he frowned. ‘I’ll not be granted it of course. I’d better write at once.’

  The inquest into the deaths of Privates Hill and Greenwood was pleasingly brisk. The coroner was a no-nonsense sort of man who seemed not in the least dismayed by the attention the proceedings had generated, especially the reporters from the London broadsheets who with others of the provincial press filled one of the galleries in the assembly rooms. At the end of a brief deposition by the surviving revenue riding officer, he directed the jury to bring in a verdict of unlawful killing in the case of both dragoons, and adjourned the proceedings without elaboration. In an instant the London and provincial hacks besieged the uniformed observers for some titbit to enliven their day’s copy: for once, Hervey was glad to be in plain clothes and apart from his fellows. All the hacks, that is, but The Times’s man, who raced from the court to a waiting chaise and made off with great haste to the capital.

  Dawn the next morning saw Hervey and his groom on the downs above Brighton. The air had a taste of salt but was invigorating, and with no one as far as the eye could see but the riding master, Lieutenant Broad, and Broad’s groom, Hervey could forget his woeful condition for the time being.

  Mr Broad was another extract, but Hervey had taken to him from their first meeting. Broad had been in the ranks of the 1st Dragoons – Lord George Irvine’s former regiment – for fifteen years before Lord George had arranged his commissioning into the Sixth after Waterloo. His predecessor as riding master, who had been a rough rider under three RMs, had been diligent but somewhat rigid. And though he had been generally respected, there were some (including Hervey) who thought he had become too averse to new ideas, so that the regiment’s equitation, though sound enough, did not rise beyond the commonplace.

  Mr Broad, however, was both his own and a Woodbridge man in the question of the riding school. He had surprised some in the Sixth by his assertion that each horse and each rider was an individual, and that it was his duty as RM to bring on both as individuals, yet for the common task of the regiment. These were progressive views indeed, and Hervey had wondered at first how well the RM’s own staff took to them. The answer, he had soon learned, was well; when he had first visited riding school on returning to the regiment, it was evident how quickly the recruits absorbed their instruction. Broad must therefore have been as sympathetic with his rough riders as he was with his other charges, for they it was who had the close care of ‘the babies’.

  But Broad was not without his detractors. The adjutant, especially, abhorred his system, calling it too comfortable. And since the RM was directly subordinate to the adjutant, there had been many turn-ups.

  ‘You see what I mean, Hervey?’ he called from the chestnut blood circling at the trot. ‘He’s just a fraction unlevel. And I can’t tell if it’s bridle lameness or the real sort.’

  Hervey watched keenly as the RM schooled the troublesome chestnut. Broad had the lightest hands he had seen in many a year: bridle lameness seemed unlikely with hands such as these, although, there again, it was a very indefinite condition at the best of times.

  In five more minutes, Broad rode up to him and dismounted. ‘I’d like to see him from the ground, if you will. Drive him forwards in a long, low outline. Get him to step under more with his hind limbs to get more impulsion from them, and his back to swing more freely. Then I should be able to tell.’

  Hervey lengthened the stirrups two holes and, with Johnson’s help, lowered himself carefully into the saddle, wishing to judge the horse’s temperament by degrees rather than risk shocking him with a spring.

  He began with shallow serpentines, changing the diagonal each time for Broad to judge the soundness of the leg. But ten minutes of this revealed nothing.

  ‘Good!’ called Broad. ‘I got nothing either. What do you think?’

  ‘I think there’s some resistance in going forwards properly . . .’

  ‘So did I. Can you start driving him, then?’

  It was hard, but Hervey did so for a quarter of an hour, until both he and the horse were sweating prodigiously. Then he brought him back to a walk to let him down. ‘I really don’t think there’s chronic unsoundness in this animal. I rather like him, indeed. I just think he’s been badly schooled.’

  ‘Bravo, Hervey. My sentiments, too. He’ll have got butcher’s hands at a Tattersalls doer’s: they won’t give a young horse time.’

  Hervey jumped from the saddle and patted the gelding’s neck. ‘And so?’

  ‘I shall buy him, then. A fortnight of this and he’ll have a proper rhythm back. I’ll lunge him in a Chambon tomorrow. Would you like to come again the day after?’

  ‘Thank you, Broad,’ said Hervey warmly as the RM’s groom took the reins. ‘Thank you very much indeed.’ In the hour he had been there he had not thought of their commanding officer once.

  ‘It’s a bad business, Hervey,’ said Broad abruptly, offering him a cheroot.

  Hervey declined it. ‘What is a bad business?’

  ‘Everything. The serjeants aren’t happy, or the corporals.’

  It was a rude return to regimental matters. Hervey s
ighed. ‘An officer is owed loyalty,’ he replied rather flatly. It was the principle on which they had all been nurtured as cornets. But then it had been easy enough. Hervey’s first troop leader had been Joseph Edmonds, his last Sir Edward Lankester. And for the most part the lieutenant colonel had been Lord George Irvine. It was not difficult to be loyal to men like these. ‘We have to remain faithful, Broad, if for no other reason but that matters will be worse for our dragoons if we do not.’

  ‘I know,’ said the RM, speaking with more than a little experience. ‘I’ve seen from below the trouble that’s stirred when the officers are unhappy.’

  ‘Happy officers, happy regiment?’

  ‘Exactly.’

  Hervey stopped and turned to him. ‘What is it you are saying, then?’

  ‘That there has to be some prospect of improvement, else nothing will reverse the ill spirits.’

  The RM’s discretion did him proud, thought Hervey. He – more than the quartermasters, even – would know the minds of the senior ranks. Not that that was supposed to be difficult. Joseph Edmonds used to say that you always knew what your dragoons were saying, and usually what your NCOs were thinking – but the officers, rarely. ‘You know, Broad, I believe we’re missing Mr Lincoln rather more than we might think.’

  The RSM’s long leave of absence was the single most aggravating factor, some were saying. ‘It would be as well to promote another now,’ said Broad decidedly.

  Hervey frowned. ‘I can’t see how—’

  ‘You don’t imagine he’ll return to duty, do you?’

  ‘Why on earth would he not? Besides aught else, he surely has hopes of being promoted.’

  Now the RM frowned. ‘Commissioned, Hervey, not promoted!’

  Hervey reddened. No officer commissioned from that august rank ever considered he was promoted. ‘Very well. But I for one would be dismayed if Mr Lincoln were not back at his post before the year is out. Unless, that is, you know otherwise.’

  ‘What I know is that Hopwood’s flogging tested his loyalty to the utmost. Lincoln was more opposed to flogging than you could have supposed. The orderly room serjeant overheard the RSM in with the colonel. And all I’ll say is that his lordship left him in no doubt that his opinion was of little value.’